Centering Prayer: A Reminder of God's Presence and Love
By By Sue Morse
Posted on
Centering prayer is like coming home. It helps me remember who I am. In a world that has so many claims on us and that pressures us to be other than who we “truly” are, it is a reminder that we are a loved being, a child of God. We realize and remember that we are literally breathed by Another and connected to all others in a web of care. All of our strivings for security and safety, affection and esteem, power and control are meaningless outside of God’s love. It is the ultimate rest stop on our journey, where we bring “nothing” and receive everything.
When I first started to practice Centering Prayer, I was at once greeted by my “monkey mind” jumping all over the place from one thought to another, each shouting for attention. My head was a roomful of noise and it was almost painful to try and sit quietly — 20 minutes seemed like an eternity. Yet with faithfulness and the help of the sacred word bringing me back and back and back, it became a door, an entry into the one true thing in my life —the presence of God.
Coming to this Presence daily, I learned there is never a condition on God’s love. Every day, whether I am happy, sad, angry, afraid, I am never “not good enough” and the door is never closed. And gradually the seeds planted during this time reached out into all of my life; all I need to do is pause and remember the Presence of God in whom I live and move and have my Being. Being deeply loved, I love deeply.
As Father Thomas Keating put it so succinctly in our retreat day in Bar Harbor: “Just sit down and shut up”— and be transformed by God’s love.
Sue Morse is a long-time Centering Prayer practitioner and member of Mercy by the Sea’s Centering Prayer Circles.
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